WALL - Monmouth freshman guard Micah Seaborn took an Easter weekend trip to check out the West Long Branch campus. Nine days later, the Prime Prep senior took to Twitter to announce he had committed to head coach King Rice.

Part of basketball recruiting is who you know and the relationships you've made and cultivated. Rice is friends with Prime Prep head coach Ray Forsett, who coached both Hornbeak and Seaborn at Arlington Grace Prep during the 2011-12 season. Forsett moved to Prime Prep and coached Seaborn for two more seasons at the Dallas school. Beyond all of that, arguably the most important factor working in Rice's favor is that Hornbeak and Seaborn are longtime, close friends.

So, when Seaborn committed on April 29, his next order of business was to get his hometown friend on board with the program.

"I've been knowing him since like the fourth grade," Seaborn told the Asbury Park Press on April 29. "I want him to come and play with me."

"Micah came here and Micah was probably their biggest recruiter," Hornbeak said Tuesday evening at the Jersey Mike's Jersey Shore Basketball League. "He called me every day telling me to come here. I just weighed my options and I felt it would be good to be here."

Under NCAA transfer rules, Hornbeak will need to sit out 2014-15 season, so a reunion with Seaborn during a game that matters is going to have to wait about 16 months.

For what it's worth, the last time Hornbeak and Seaborn played in a game together, they, along with projected 2015 top-5 pick Emmanuel Mudiay, former Baylor star Isaiah Austin and LSU sophomore forward Jordan Mickey, helped Grace Prep to the TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools) Class 4A state title.

"It feels like he was always over at the house every day anyway," Hornbeak said of Seaborn, "So now, we're just taking it to New Jersey."

"That's pretty much my brother, that's my blood brother almost. I love that dude right there. Yes, I definitely wanted to play with him. We haven't played together since his sophomore year of high school, so I'm happy to play with him again."